Main attraction won't see action

Kevin Garnett returned to Minnesota on Thursday afternoon on the Boston Celtics' chartered aircraft for tonight's nationally televised game against the Timberwolves, the most awaited night of the season when, as fate would have it, his presence will be both everywhere and nowhere.

He was last seen on a basketball court exactly two weeks ago, stripping the ball from Sebastian Telfair with a game-saving play in Boston.

He celebrated a victory over the league's worst team (at the time) that night with his league-leading teammates by theatrically displaying the team name on his jersey in a demonstration that insulted some Timberwolves fans.

He has not played since then because of an abdominal injury suffered late in that game, when the Celtics somehow summoned victory from the precipice of defeat.

Barring a miracle healing directly from Lourdes (or some terrific subterfuge by the Celtics), Garnett will not play tonight in a game that hometown fans marked on their schedules since last summer's trade sent him away.

Instead, the Wolves have received a one-minute exemption from the NBA in their pregame routine tonight to acknowledge Garnett's presence on the Boston bench just before the Celtics starters are introduced. Then, he is expected to retreat to the locker room just down the hall from where he resided for 12 seasons to watch the game from a location he insists upon when he's not healthy enough to play.

He cites two reasons why he never watches from the bench.

"One, because I don't wear a sports jacket," he told reporters before he missed his fifth consecutive game Wednesday night, at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. "Second, sitting on the bench and knowing that there are 10 steps to the scorer's table to check in probably wouldn't be the best thing for the NBA, especially with me."

In a goodwill gesture, the Wolves will give fans attending tonight's game a voucher redeemable for a ticket to one of three upcoming games. Single-game ticket buyers were required to purchase tickets in a two- or three-game package if they wanted to guarantee a seat for Garnett's emotional return to Target Center.

The game officially is sold out, but some standing-room only tickets and perhaps some late released tickets are available as well.

"Our fans want to see him," said Telfair, the Wolves point guard who was one of five players acquired from Boston last summer for Garnett. "They still have a lot of love for K.G., a lot of support even if he's not playing. It'd be pretty cool for him to be in the arena, for the fans. A full house, a little extra energy, we respond really well for when our fans are yelling loud for us."

The Celtics have won three of five games without Garnett and arrive tonight with a league-best 37-9 record. The Wolves play their only nationally televised game of the season with the memory of their loss in Boston, where they led by five points with 3 1/2 minutes left and led by a point with the ball with 23 seconds left.

"It took me, like, five or six days to get over that game, even though we played other games and won," Wolves forward Al Jefferson said. "I still had a bad taste in my mouth. It was one of those games we should have won and we didn't."

Wolves fans might have been upset with Garnett's exuberance afterward, but former teammate Rashad McCants said he has no qualms.

"Because I didn't see it," he said. "I was so mad we lost. I don't see how Wolves fans can feel offended. He's not a Wolf anymore."

When told that some Minnesotans felt his friend was rubbing it in, McCants said, "He probably was. Why shouldn't he? He's K.G."

The day before that game, Garnett told reporters he had "nothing" for them when asked about the emotions of playing his former team, but his actions in victory suggested otherwise. Even though he's not playing, Celtics teammate Ray Allen suspects this, too, will not just be another game for Garnett.

"You talk about it being another game, and you try not to worry about it," Allen told the Boston Globe. "Obviously, it's come upon us so quickly. But emotionally, I think it's going to set him back. He's already an emotional person, so being able to be in that building for him, and seeing old faces, people who he's dealt with for his whole career, I definitely think he's going to be emotional about it. It's going to be tougher than he might have realized."